Blue Mountains

Our very last destination in Australia before returning our camper in Sydney was the national park Blue Mountains. We cannot find any other word than spectacular that comes even close to describe the natural beauty of this place. The park consists of sandstone mountains that have been eroded into huge valleys and canyons. The bottom of the canyons are covered with thick forest that look like a green velvet carpet from above.

Early the next morning we set out on a hike that took us over, under and even through waterfalls. It took us along cliffs with magnificent lookouts and along a path that had been carved out from the middle of a cliff face.

If you're ever in Sydney don't miss the Blue Mountains and be sure to spend the night there in order to see the magic colors that only come out during sunset and sunrise.

Koala Hospital

In Port Macquarie we visited a very special hospital. It was however not a normal hospital for people, it was a hospital only for Koalas. We learnt about how they help these cuddly looking little creatures.

Most of the koalas that are in the hospital have been burned from bush fires. Others have been hit by cars or are badly infected with viruses. The majority of the koalas at the hospital are released back into the wild but a few are too injured to survive on their own and remain in the hospital.

In bush fires koalas try to escape by running up the tree, they are therefore trapped. Each koala has his or her own favorite tree. New land development is another big threat to the koalas. Once a tree has been cut down the koala sometimes lacks the interest to find a new tree. They have even found koalas sitting on the stump of their old tree not knowing what to do.

Costal New South Wales

When the sunshine coast turned out to be the rain coast we decided to continue south towards New South Wales. After a lunch break along the beach in Surfers Paradise we entered New South Wales and our first destination was Byron Bay.

In Byron the weather changed and we were greeted by magnificent sunshine. The long and empty white sand beach made the decision to stay for an extra day very easy. A beautiful hike up to the light house on Australia's most easterly point at Cape Byron followed by boogie boarding and some book reading on the beach made our stay perfect.

When the rain clouds started to gather on the horizon we decided to hit the road again. Our next destination along the coast was Port Macquarie. This town has a number of small beaches that are easy to access from the town center. Apart from some beach time that included the windiest lunch along our trip we also had time to visit the very interesting Koala Hospital (see separate post).

Our last stop along the coast was a camp ground next to seven mile beach in the great lakes area. The next morning the weather played  tricks on us. We woke up early and the sky was blue and the sun was shinning. We decided it was the perfect day to go on a nice long hike. Forty minutes into our hike it started pouring down with rain. We should have known by now, never to leave the camper without rain gear.

Fraser Island

Fraser Island off the Queensland coast,  is the worlds largest sand island. We went on a three day guided tour of this amazing place.

Our guide drove us around in a 4 wheel drive bus and took us to beautiful fresh water lakes, magical looking sand formations, sand blows and rain forests. With the whole island being sand it is fascinating that trees can grow on it and that animals can live there. The island has a large population of Dingos (Australian wild dogs) and a large variety of native Australian forests.

The beach that runs along the entire east coast is the islands main highway. It was thrilling to drive 80 kilometers an hour at high tide and race the waves coming in. The inland sand roads have bumps like ski moguls and reminded us of constant roller coaster rides.

If you ever go to Australia, make sure you don't miss Fraser Island and request to have ranger Les as your guide.

Hatching turtles

During December and January the sea turtles come to a number of beaches in Australia to lay their eggs. The eggs  hatch during February and March.
Most of the turtle beaches are very hard to access because they are far from any roads or are on islands. But just outside the town of Bundaberg (mainly famous for it's Rum) you will find the beach Mon Repos. This is one of the very few turtle beaches that can be accessed easily. Every evening during turtle season they close the beach for general public access and you can go out with a ranger to try and spot turtles and hatchlings.

We were very lucky when our ranger had already found a nest where  some hatchlings were about to hatch. It was fascinating to see almost one hundred baby  turtles dig their way up through the sand, crawling down the beach and heading out into the ocean. The statistics are not in favor of the newborns though, only one out of one thousand will make it back as an adult turtle one day.

The baby turtles use the slope of the beach, the sound of the waves and the light over the ocean for orientation.  We were not able to take any photos of them as they were making their way down to the ocean this could have upset their sense of direction.

After all the turtles had left the nest the ranger dug out the shells in order to count the number of hatchlings as well as the number of unsuccessful ones.

A growing problem for turtles today is the increasing number of high rise buildings close to the beaches. The shade from the buildings affect the temperature on the beaches. The sand temperature determines the sex of the new born hatchlings and this unnatural temperature change is upsetting the male-female balance among turtles. A second problem caused by these buildings is the light that they give off. It tricks the hatchlings to walk in the wrong direction and they never make it to the ocean.

Camper or car

Our initial plan while traveling along the east coast of Australia was to rent a car. When we found the company Spaceships that claimed to provide the Swiss army knife of campers for a price less then a normal car rental we thought why not give it a try.

The spaceship (space shit) is a Toyota mini van with a foam mattress, a mini fridge and two pullout cooking burners. After a week in the spaceship and a few tears from Erika we found out that its not a camper.  It is a gas guzzling car with an emergency bed and a small fridge. Sleeping in it in tropical Queensland when you have no windows or ventilation makes for a hot and rough night sleep.

On a good note we are able to pullover at any beach side BBQ spot and cook up a storm thanks to our car with a fridge:)

Australian river crossing

BBQ lunch

Great Barrier Reef

Together with 25 other people we boarded a dive boat in Cairns for a three day liveaboard trip. During these three days we did eleven dives, two of them night dives, and Erika completed  her advanced open water certification.

The diving on the great barrier reef is very beautiful. At first we were a bit scared as there was no guide provided, you were expected to go out with your buddy and navigate on your own. After diving a lot in Asia we were used to always having a guide under water.

As it turned out, the dive sites we went to were very easy to navigate and the dive conditions were excellent without drift and currents. The night dive was still a bit scary because the only light is a small hand held flash light.

We got to see lots of fish, coral and turtles. The most amazing experience was when we positioned ourselves under the boat at five meters depth during the night dive and had sharks circling around us.

It is very hard on your body to do so many dives in such a short period of time. At the end it  was the pressure in your head and the equalizing of your ears that felt the pain.  Diving without a guide made us confident as divers. It is a great feeling to be able to navigate under water on your own.

Tropical Queensland

A wall of humidity hit us when we stepped out of the airport in Cairns. The winter hats and fleece jackets that we wore in Tasmania were shoved to the bottom of the backpacks and quickly forgotten. What we had to take out though was our rain jackets. Right now it is rainy season in the tropical northern Queensland and boy did it rain.

With two days to spare in Cairns before our dive trip to the great barrier reef we decided to fight the rain. We picked up our camper a bit earlier than planned and headed for Cape Tribulation and the Atherton Tablelands. After some crocodile spotting and a couple of rain forest hikes we were back in Cairns ready to go diving (see separate post).

After our diving trip our next destination was Townsville and Magnetic Island. On Magnetic Island we managed to find a wonderful bed and breakfast with safari tents. It was situated perfectly with the beach out the front, waterfalls with swimming holes around the corner and plenty of hiking trails close by.

Northern Queensland has amazing nature with rain forests, mangrove, high lands and of course lots of beautiful beaches. It does however also have stringers during rainy season. Stingers are different types of jelly fish that are strong enough to kill humans. So despite stopping at all these wonderful beaches along the way the cold only swim in the fresh water swimming holes. Luckily we did not encounter any crocodiles in them.